Newspaper carrier rescues senior stuck in bathtub 2 days

Published: July 16, 2008 | 7215th good news item since 2003

The observations of a woman delivering newspapers led to the rescue of an elderly Moncton resident who was stuck in her bathtub for two days.

Bonnie Moore thought it was a little odd to see the elderly woman’s front door wide open at 3 a.m. one morning last week.

But the next morning around 4 a.m., Moore saw the front door still open, with the previous day’s paper lying right where she had dropped it the day before.

She knew something was amiss.

Moore called the RCMP and asked them to check on Lorraine LeBlanc. “I didn’t want to sound paranoid, but it really bothered me,” Moore says.

Her instinct was correct. LeBlanc had been stuck in her bathtub without food or water for two days.

LeBlanc, 85, decided to take a bath last Thursday night after a day working in her garden.

Normally she would give herself a sponge bath because last time she took a bath she got stuck. A hip replacement and bad knee have made it hard for LeBlanc to walk. But last Thursday, she says she wanted to get her “butt in the water.”

While she is still suffering some pain from her ordeal, it hasn’t affected her sense of humour.

LeBlanc laughed when a reporter called about the incident.

“You’re not going to put that in the paper, are you?” she said with a hearty laugh.

She says she tried numerous times throughout the harrowing experience to climb out of the tub, but her legs simply weren’t co-operating.